Ex-border agents sentenced for human smuggling

The brothers led a human smuggling ring out of San Diego

San Diego  A federal judge sentenced two former Border Patrol agents who ran a human smuggling ring in San Diego to 30 and 35 years in prison Friday, one of the harshest sentences given to border law enforcement officials convicted of corruption.

The former agents, brothers Fidel and Raul Villarreal, were convicted of human smuggling, bribery, conspiracy and money laundering after a trial in August. U.S. District Court Judge John A. Houston said the sentencing was justified because of the scope and duration of the smuggling, which went on for more than a year and involved hundreds of unauthorized immigrants entering the country.

He also said the two had betrayed both their role as law enforcement officers and their duty to protect the borders. The smuggling was, Houston said, “pervasive, disgusting, and impacted national security.” Raul, the younger of the two, got the 35 year sentence in large part because Houston concluded he was organizer and leader of the ring. He said Fidel, sentenced to 30 years, played the role of a supervisor and manager.

Federal prosecutors said that over a 14-month period in 2005 and 2006 the brothers organized and led a smuggling ring that brought more than 1,000 people across the international border and earned at least $1 million in bribes.

Houston, however, determined that the brothers took in slightly less — some $700,000 — and smuggled in about 600 people.

Raul, 44, was a 10-year veteran of the agency, and Fidel, 45, had been there almost as long. Raul acted as a spokesman for the agency in San Diego, and both rose to the rank of senior Border Patrol agent.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Salel said that in 2005 Raul set up the ring, which included drivers, foot guides, a coordinator in Mexico and a police chief in Tijuana who provided security and safe passage through Tijuana for unauthorized immigrants wanting to gain entry to the U.S.

They were brought across the border in groups of 10 at a time, at a cost of $10,000 per load the brothers demanded, he said. The smuggling occurred while the brothers were on the job, in full uniform. The immigrants were often picked up by one of the Villarreals, in a marked Border Patrol vehicle, then taken to a location where they were transferred to another driver for further passage.

Many of the drops and pickups occurred in and around the rugged Otay Mountain area in well-known points with nicknames such as “the tubes,” “white cross” and “the monument.”

Salel told the judge that the smuggling was egregious and an embarrassment to law enforcement. The Villarreals are two of about 150 border law enforcement officers who have been hit with corruption-related charges since 2004 in an epidemic of misconduct that has tarnished the agencies.

Salel said the Villarreals were one of the worst examples of corruption that differed from some other cases that have been uncovered.

“These were not misguided rookies who got involved with the wrong crowd,” he said. “These guys set up their own organization to line their own pockets.”

Investigators were tipped to the ring by a confidential informant in May 2005 and set up a detailed surveillance operation of the brothers. It included using cameras mounted on poles at drop-off locations, aerial surveillance, and tracking devices and cameras placed on Border Patrol vehicles they were to use.

In June 2006, the brothers got tipped they were under investigation, quit the Border Patrol overnight and vanished into Mexico. They remained there until being arrested by Mexican authorities in Tijuana in 2008.

Defense lawyers told Houston that the number of people smuggled and the amount of bribes the brothers earned was being inflated by prosecutors. They said the Villarreals were one part of the ring, and not the leaders as prosecutors portrayed. J. David Nick, the lawyer for Raul, said that role belonged to Hector Cabrera, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty and testified against the brothers at the trial.

“The government wants to make Raul Villarreal the mastermind,” he said. “He is not.”

Houston disagreed and said that Raul was the “founding member” of the conspiracy.

Each brother briefly spoke in court, thanking the judge for presiding over a fair trial, but did not say anything specific about the case. That was because their lawyers said they would appeal, and had advised them not to say anything more.

Sentences for other corruption cases across the border vary widely, depending on the conduct involved. Several Customs and Border Protection officers, who man the gates at ports of entry, have received sentences of between 10 and 20 years. Those sentences have come from being involved in drug smuggling crimes which have higher mandatory sentences rather than human smuggling or bribery.